No Headphone is worth $3K! It's all over-hyped
Oh yes they are!
My R8 Australian sedan was costing a bundle to run, a bundle in depreciation, a fortune to maintain (those flares and side skirts don't travel so well up driveways), add insurance, parking, registration, parking fines etc and I could easily spend 5k every time it was registered plus the rest without barely driving it.
Having owned it from new I came to the realisation that I hated my car. I hated cleaning it. I hated scratching it, parking it, and pranging it. When I eventually hated even contemplating driving it I instead considered selling it and toying with one thing I truly did love, most of us do, and that was music. What I asked myself was whether I should consider a switch and made it meaningful enough to require I sell the car? And that is when I heard ifi Audio and it changed my life.
My first experience with the ifi Pro iCAN immediately sent chills all over me. It was freaky. That sensation that you've discovered something unlike anything you've ever experienced. I describe my pro iDSD, which I bought the day it arrived in Australia last year, combined with the Pro iCAN, connected to my Denon HD7200 as pure bliss. My mother has cried listening to it. My friends point at their ears in what can only be described as some audio-sexual nirvana going on somewhere between those headphone cups and their brain. And on that front, ifi no doubt exceeds any other pleasure they've had of late. Any other audio setup I've heard happily had me multitasking as music played in the background. But those ifi tubes leave me incapable of doing anything but listening, sometimes mesmerised by the sound, but always feeling the joy it has over me.
Take into account that my headphones and the D7000 I owned before them, as well as my lounge setup-- a Denon 4520 amp with floor standing Monitor Audio RS60 speakers -- are items I have owned for over 10 years. The ifi gear I bought, including the Micro iDSD cost me A$8,000, but it has transformed every piece of equipment it has touched, my setup has risen in quality to what I believe is sublime.
But could I be happier? Let me tell you, looking at the Meze Empyrean and reading it's reviews has me pondering my next move. There's not another car to sell. Selling your kidney turns out to be a conspiracy (phew). But I will do what I have to. Is US $3,000 a lot to spend on headphones? You bet. But there's a certain satisfaction in knowing the rare pleasure that awaits is available to those who dare.
